


Redshift

by Cywolf



Category: Naruto
Genre: Drama, F/M, Stockholm Syndrome, Theme: Red and White, challengefic, prisoner Tenten
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:34:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26362732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cywolf/pseuds/Cywolf
Summary: Tenten is captured by the Sound.
Relationships: Tenten/Uchiha Sasuke
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	1. Redshift

**redshift** : (noun) a redshift can occur when a light source moves away from an observer.

* * *

_I used not to have a favorite color._

_There were colors I liked better than others: pink and green for growing things, spring-colors, gray and brown for my weapons of steel and wood. But I used not to have a favorite color...._

_...white isn't even a color, really, is it?_

* * *

When Team Gai was newly-formed, Neji once caught Tenten staring intently at his eyes. It wasn't quite like the besotted gazes his fangirls had burdened him with in the Academy, nor was Neji much surprised - the Byakugan always entranced other people. But he smirked at her for it, and she had drawn back with an embarrassed, insulted expression.

She got quite good at stealing looks into his eyes during sparring sessions, inserting them between blows and strikes. She didn't think he noticed this time.

...such a pretty shade of white-silver they were.

* * *

When she outgrew her pink and green tang shirts, she replaced them with sleeved ones, this time (the better to hide wrist and forearm and shoulder holsters - as well as other things)

They were white, this time.

* * *

_White is...a clean color. Clear. Bright. Soothing, sometimes._

_But sometimes it's too bright. Sometimes it's sight-burning._

* * *

"Tenten. I'm giving you a B-Class mission - it's a courier mission. Shouldn't be too dangerous, but the client insists on speed - you'll need to get the jewelry there in three days."

Speed. Ah. From training with Neji - and more especially, Lee - Tenten was the fastest of the kunoichi. One of the fastest ninja, period, in the Village. It paid off in missions like this. "Jewelry, Tsunade-sama?"

"The client's daughter is having a wedding in Alinam - that's in Rain. He's decided that in lieu of attending he'll send over an heirloom ring - and several other baubles, for a wedding gift. The wedding is however in three days - and the ring is essential to the ceremony."

Tenten nodded. "I see."

"Get it there, get the payment, then come straight back." Tsunade smiled at her. "Wouldn't want to miss the Yong New Year parade, now would you?"

Tenten laughed, a little pleasantly surprised that Tsunade knew of the festival - but then again, she WAS the Hokage. "It would be fun to attend," she agreed, then bowed to the older woman.

Tsunade waved her off. "See you in a week, Tenten."

* * *

_It was ironic._

_Neji and Lee were the ones who had been agitating for solo A-class missions._

_But_ I _was the one who had the first solo A-class encounter._

* * *

The mission had gone off without a hitch. The first half of the payment had been deposited directly with Konoha, but the second half had been given her by a weeping, emotional bride - along with a teary hug, profuse thanks, and a "little bit extra" as appreciation for the promptness. Tenten had been proud of herself - running full out with lessened sleep had got her to Alinam in two days. She could take it a little easier on the way back, though....

As it turned out, she couldn't.

* * *

> Missing Shinobi Report
> 
> **Name** : Tien ru Jian (aka Tenten)  
>  **Registration No**. : 012573  
>  **Age** : 16  
>  **Rank** : Chuunin  
>  **Status** : MIA
> 
> **Notes** : Subject was returning from B-class courier mission (see Appendix B, mission form), to Anilam, Rain Country (see Appendix A, maps) when it is believed that subject encountered S-Class missing-nin Orochimaru and A-Class missing-nin Yakushi Kabuto, on their way back from encounter with Team 7. (see Appendix D, mission report). It is believed a battle ensued, based on physical evidence. (See Appendix A1, photographs) Subject was captured and/or killed - if so, the body was hidden. It is possible subject is now imprisoned within Sound Village.
> 
> It is recommended that subject's team be removed from mission-status, and confined in Konoha, temporarily.

* * *

When she awoke, the first thing she saw was light. Light glinting off someone's glasses, she realized slowly.

Yakushi Kabuto was smiling gently at her. She remembered him more from mission-briefings, and research at the library, then from running into him at her first chuunin exams. She wished he didn't remember her.

"Hello, Tenten-chan," he purred, and held up a scalpel. Suddenly the light was flashing from things aside from his glasses.

* * *

_I screamed a lot. After a while, I stopped._

_But only because I_ couldn't _scream anymore._

* * *

They learned enough from her to know she didn't know much _worth_ learning - she was only a chuunin weapons-user, no clan-member, no favorite of the jounin, no intimate of the high officials. She was, they realized, cannon fodder - useless.

(She smiled - as best she could - when she overheard them talking. She'd succeeded, then...her smile ended when painful coughs wracked her emaciated frame.)

She expected they'd kill her, now

* * *

_Voices over her - blurry figures flickering in and out of focus._

_"I want her."_

_"You do?" A mocking laugh. "Is our little Sasuke-kun growing up?"_

_"Give her to me. I could use her."_

_A leer. "I just bet you could." A pause, then a long tongue flickering out to lick thin dark lips._

_"You can have her. She shall be your pet, your responsibility, though..." he said, a disturbing parody of a father lecturing a son on a new puppy._

_"...her life will be in your hands."_

* * *

Sasuke gave orders for her to be transferred into his quarters - not into his room, but he had a whole wing to himself. More for no one wanting to be near him and his frightening eyes and his fire and lightnings....

Even they, hardened Sound ninja, could feel pity for the prisoner transported into his rooms.

* * *

_Dark hair - pale skin - a face hovering above my own._

_Hope swells inside me._

_"N-neji...?" I rasp._

_Then my vision clears slightly, and I become aware of the differences._

_There are red eyes blazing at me from that pale, beautiful (how unfairly beautiful!) face._

_"No," he says, softly, and this hurts me so much I dive back into the darkness of unconsciousness._

* * *

He didn't want her for his bed, he explained to her in a cool, detached voice. He needed a sparring partner - someone who would fight him full-out, without fear or hesitation, as most of the Sound regarded him with. Her hatred of him, he explained gravely, would give her ample motivation. Most of the ninja who could offer him even a bit of a challenge were always out on missions, or being killed. (Sound had a frighteningly high mortality rate, higher than Konoha's by as much as Konoha's was higher than civilian cities' - but then Orochimaru always had a ready source of new manpower in missing-nin)

"I'm not - I can't give you a good fight," Tenten protested quietly, eying him with wariness as she lay in her bed, healing - not that she could have done anything if he made a move.

"Not yet you can't." He paused. "But you _will._ " This last is a threat, or a promise - or maybe both.

* * *

_Training is hard._

_There's an edge to it that I've never known, not even with Gai and Lee's most fervent bouts of training, not even when Neji is in an angry mood._

This _is an enemy._

 _He pushes me, pushes me,_ pushes me _. He pushes me past endurance - not just the gasping, tired, wow-good-bout training with my teammates, but leaving me broken and bleeding on the hard-packed earth floor. (No dojos for us - the wild serves just fine)_

_Not only blood. Burns, too, from lightning strikes and fire balls - poison from summoned snakes - suffocation from vipers, from pale hands folded around my throat._

_I learn, though. I learn how to move faster, better, smarter. How to use my blades to deflect his. How to dodge the whip-swift strikes of his summoned snakes. I learn -from him - that I'm a wind-natured; later on, as I learn to manipulate that, I learn that I am secondarily a fire user._

_Just like him._

* * *

Broken, gasping, bleeding - not just from cuts, but from her mouth and ears and nose. The Sound medic-nin rushed to her side, gasping in horror when they realized she was still awake.

"Stupid girl," Sasuke told her as they worked on her. "I said not to try that jutsu unless I was here."

She smiled back at him, revealing bloody teeth. "But how - how would I surprise you in a spar? If you knew..."

Then one of the doctors pressed a hand against her in such a way that she fell unconscious again. The last thing she saw were _his_ red eyes, spinning, spinning, _spinning._

* * *

 _At one point I realized I was fast enough, strong enough - good enough,_ I was good enough - _to attempt an escape. Perhaps when Sasuke slept. Or when he went out on a mission. (He did not go out on many - Orochimaru wanted him safe. And training.)_

_I did not._

_I told myself I was biding my time, only. Waiting. Hedging my bets, training more, learning this skill or that._

_I knew I was lying._

* * *

> Stockholm Syndrome
> 
> While modern sources are uncertain of the etymology of the name, this designation has been with us for a long time, possibly even before the Great Cataclysm hundreds of years ago.
> 
> Stockholm Syndrome describes the behavior of kidnap victims who, over time, become sympathetic to their captors. Captives begin to identify with their captors initially as a defensive mechanism, out of fear of violence. Small acts of kindness by the captor are magnified, since finding perspective in a hostage situation is by definition impossible. It's important to note that these symptoms occur under tremendous emotional and often physical duress.

* * *

_It was hard to keep track of time. Days passed into each other swiftly. Sometimes I missed entire weeks, injured. Sometimes I napped in the middle of the day, woke up in the middle of the night, fought, sparred, had my clock reset to the passage of days only when forced to by medics keeping me on a schedule. I ate when I wanted - could not often spare the time - burned off everything I ate._

_It had been a year, I was told later. I didn't know._

_I did not escape._

_He told me to go._

_I - I almost argued with him. I told him he needed me there. I told him - I told him lots of things. And he didn't say I was wrong - but he said I needed to go._

_So I went._

* * *

Later, when the flurry and chaos of her return ended; when she'd told everything she knew about Sound to the elders - was questioned by Ibiki, proved she had not broken under Sound's interrogation - reunited with her team, friends - when all that was over, she had to buy new clothes. She had grown in the year she'd gone - grown leaner, taller, limbs changing in proportion to her own body.

Her new tops were red - bright red, and black. Sleeveless, no longer silk.

She would wear her weapons openly, now. She would not hide them underneath the flimsy cloth of a sleeve.

And red and black hid the blood so much better.


	2. Shades of Red

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 50 things that happened during Redshift.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based on a fifty-themes challenge. Originally posted in two parts in March 24 and April 2, 2007.

_He sealed her heart from sage and questioner --_  
_Yea, with seven seals, as he has sealed the grave._

\- GK Chesterton

* * *

**o1. – Ring**  
  
Tenten smiles weakly, through a whirling in her head that she thinks is a concussion; she is down, but Sasuke is hedged in by a circle of swords.

 **o2. – Hero**  
  
She used to daydream about someone from Konoha coming to rescue her – her team, or Naruto who dares the impossible, or Neji alone with his white eyes and cool invincibility – but she stops after a while.  
  
**o3. – Memory**

What she remembers of her time in Sound before Sasuke are incoherent, stuttering snapshots – pain, and screaming, and extremes of sensation.  
  
**o4. – Box**  
  
Sasuke never restrained her – but he knew, and she knew, that there was a point beyond which she _must not_ go – that she lived inside an invisible box.  
  
**o5. – Run**  
  
When he tells her to go, she hesitates too long – the Sound knows she is escaping, and she has to outrun too many ninjas.

**o6. – Hurricane**

She summons four smoky dragons that whirl and twine about her – watchers think of being in the eye of a storm.

 **o7. – Wings**  
  
When she sees Sasuke in his second-level Curse Seal form, she only remarks that his wings cannot possibly enable him to fly – and launches into a long discussion about aerodynamics, bone density, and weight-to-lift ratio.

 **o8. – Cold**  
  
Although they are underground she is never chilled – living near a fire-user, she is often overheated, though.

 **o9. – Red**  
  
His eyes begin to haunt her dreams.

 **1o. – Drink**  
  
Once, some Sound shinobi sneaked a potent liquor into her flask – Sasuke coolly crippled them for it, not for the drink but for what they said they would do to her when she was drunk.

 **11\. – Midnight**  
  
They often spar at night – midnight becomes just as common to her as noon.

 **12\. – Temptation**  
  
Kabuto develops a new aphrodisiac, meant for use in interrogations and seduction missions – Sasuke hesitates for a moment before refusing the little test-bottle Kabuto offers him.

 **13\. – View**  
  
Sasuke strips off his white tunic and uses it to mop his streaming forehead, while Tenten pretends she is still unconscious.

 **14\. – Music**  
  
Sound Village was full of music – but Tenten never forgot that it was meant for use in battle.

 **15\. – Silk**  
  
She never does find out what happens to her clothes from Konoha; but Sasuke dresses her in black and red, and she learns to be content with that.

 **16\. – Cover**  
  
She learns to lie for him, to protect him against even his own fellow Sound-nin.  
  
**17\. – Promise**  
  
Sasuke promises her things all the time: _“I will hurt you, you will learn this, you'll be sorry, you'll learn to stop missing them.”_

 **18\. – Dream**  
  
His Sharingan lets him play with her mind – sometimes he does it while she sleeps, catching her eyes in between one REM blink and the next.

 **19\. – Candle**  
  
When she's back in Konoha, the wavering light of a candle-flame is enough to cast Tenten into a deep reverie.  
  
**2o. – Talent**  
  
_'I'm not like you, I'm not a prodigy,'_ she protests when he demands she learn; he sneers and says she is too used to hiding behind her teammates.

 **21\. – Silence**  
  
She thinks the reason she gets to understand Sasuke's unspoken words so well is practice with Neji; but that does not explain why, when she gets back to Konoha, she can no longer translate the white-eyed boy's movements.

 **22\. – Journey**  
  
One day, she just paused, and looked down at the younger ninja sleeping easily beside her – sprawled on the grass, sweat from their recent training-session drying on his face – and wondered how they had gotten from _there_ (anger and hate and fear) to _here._ (And where _was_ here?) _  
  
_**23\. – Fire**  
  
Sasuke – child of the Uchiha clan that he was – knows every fire jutsu in Konoha, and since Karyuu Endan is (as yet) beyond her, Tenten begs him to teach her the Ryuuka no Jutsu.  
  
**24\. – Strength**  
  
After a while – and after four casualties: two slain, one crippled and one blinded, all of whom had been prone to speculating wildly about “Sasuke- _sama's_ new whore” - Sound learns to respect the Konoha weapons-user, for her power if nothing else.  
  
**25\. – Mask**  
  
Hidden Sound is more than missing-nin and power-grabs – there are shops, and eateries, and music-halls there, and Tenten actually visits some of them under henge.  
  
**26\. – Ice**  
  
The first time she pins him is forever engraved in his mind: the silence of the forest, her exercise-flushed face hovering above his, and how the edge of her katana – no cheap, short ninjato for her – felt ice-cold against the skin of his throat.  
  
**27\. – Fall**  
  
When, she wonders with something that might be despair or might be a wild, wild joy – when did she decide she would stay with him?  
  
**28\. – Forgotten**  
  
She realizes, with a start, that it has been almost a full week since she had thought of Konoha.  
  
**29\. – Dance**  
  
Sasuke watches Tenten sleepily make her way towards him, automatically dodging the heaps and piles of weapons – a pile of kunai there, twinned kodachi over there, a six-foot-tall _zweihander_ from across the seas sunk half a foot into the wooden floor – scattered all over her room, and thinks that, just crossing the floor, Tenten looks like she's dancing.  
  
**3o. – Body**  
  
“The human body isn't meant to take so much punishment, Sasuke-kun,” Kabuto warns him, hands hovering above an unconscious Tenten – Sasuke only ignores him.

 **31\. – Sacred**  
  
“She is _not_ for the likes of you,” Sasuke tells a group of Sound-nin eying 'the prisoner' with hungry eyes, voice cool and mocking rather than warning.  
  
**32\. – Farewells**

They didn't say goodbye – she just backed, and turned, and ran, while around them Sound bayed for her blood.  
  
**33\. – World**

For the first few months, Sasuke is careful to keep the injured, wounded, broken kunoichi away from other elements of Sound Village – his rooms, and him, and their sparring-grounds out in the deep forest make up her entire world.

**34\. – Formal**

She calls him Sasuke-sama in a way that is just short of being an insult – but when she calls him 'sadist' or 'asshole' they aren't, somehow.  
  
**35\. – Fever**  
  
“You look flushed,” Tenten observes, bending over his prone form and pressing her hand to his brow, and he tries not to look at her.  
  
**36\. – Laugh**  
  
She is sprawled on the ground, buried beneath three hundred pounds of her own weapons, and she does not care, because she is too busy gaping at the way Sasuke's lips are twitching suspiciously.  
  
**37\. – Lies**  
  
“No, your old team hasn't been seen anywhere near here,” Sasuke told her, red eyes spinning.

 **38\. – Forever**  
  
He knows this will end soon, but he doesn't let himself think about that – only about the next day's sparring.

  
**39\. – Overwhelmed**  
  
Her arm is wrenched behind her, and she can feel the bone crack; the rest of her body is in similar pain, and she bows her head – he had won, utterly.

 **4o. – Whisper**  
  
“He smiles now,” one Sound-nin hissed to another, “Do you think she's bedding him?”  
  
**41\. – Wait**  
  
She finds herself pacing, sleepless and uneasy, the nights she knows Sasuke is not safe in his room next to hers.  
  
**42\. – Talk**  
  
“This conversation is pointless,” Sasuke told her, flushing – why did she want to know his favorite color, of all things?  
  
**43\. – Search**  
  
There were three men who looked for her, but she never knew.

**44\. – Hope**

Her hopes changed – she stopped hoping to be rescued, and began hoping – planning - to rescue herself.  
  
**45\. – Eclipse**  
  
Her scroll unfurls like a ribbon of white-and-black silk rather than heavy parchment, her blood a bright red streak down its center – and suddenly there are kunai and senbon arcing into the air, thousands, millions, filling the horizon – they blot out the sun.  
  
**46\. – Gravity**

She is too exhausted from sparring to keep from tripping over an exposed tree-root, and he is too exhausted to move out of the way, so they end up sprawled on top of each other  
  
**47\. – Highway**  
  
“You'll do it this way,” Sasuke tells her, laying out a training schedule in front of her, with focuses on areas she does not like. “You'll do it my way, or....”  
  
**48\. – Unknown**  
  
Sasuke never let her name be known to the rank-and-file of the Sound-nin; they had to come up with their own names for her.  
  
**49\. – Lock**  
  
She got up for a walk before remembering that she couldn't leave her room after hours – but the door swung open at her touch.  
  
**5o. – Breathe**  
  
Sasuke slanted his mouth over hers, trying to push air into her failing lungs – inwardly cursing her growing inclination to try out dangerous techniques _without him._

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the February theme of ten_squared, "Red and White". Originally posted juuuust in time to make it, on the last day of Februray 2007.


End file.
